Oh Shit, They Fired All the Fact-Checkers
The Last Person in the Newsroom, Please Turn Out the Lights
We don’t usually send two serious newsletters in one week. But when the world delivers back-to-back headlines like a flaming pile of court transcripts and corrupted Google Docs, we have no choice but to go full double-header.
Because sometimes the collapse shows up in a courtroom, with your ex holding your diary hostage. And sometimes it shows up in a newsroom, where your former editor’s byline is now being written by a bot named Margaux Blanchard. Either way, someone’s out here staging a narrative—and justice, if it even still exists, is on life support in the break room.
This week, the theme is simple: the erosion of credibility. Whether it’s a man in khakis misusing the legal system or a media company replacing journalists with AI and vibes, we’re watching institutions fail at the one thing they were allegedly designed to do: tell the truth.
This piece, Oh Shit, They Fired All the Fact-Checkers is written by Ritoban Mukherjee.
Mukherjee is an investigative journalist reporting on the frontlines of science, technology, and internet culture. He has written over 200 pieces of online content on everything from archaeologists studying melting glaciers to apps that assist land reclamation efforts. He currently runs Nutgraf, a deeply personal, often unhinged, creative media newsletter that doesn't conform to a specific topic or niche.
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When the people in charge of truth-telling outsource their integrity to the lowest bidder, what we’re left with is a whole lot of “content” and not nearly enough consequences. So yeah—we’re serious. Twice.
Two newsletters. One collapsing democracy. Let’s go.
Oh Shit, They Fired All the Fact-Checkers
The Last Person in the Newsroom, Please Turn Out the Lights
In 2018, The New York Times launched a podcast called “Caliphate,” where they interviewed a former ISIS hitman operating in Syria. He called himself “Huzayfah.” Over the course of a 12-part conversation with NYTimes reporters, Huzayfah told the most bloodcurdling tale of what goes on in ISIS terrorist cells, from being smuggled into Syria to getting his first orders to kill dissidents from Iraq.
There were glaring issues with his story that were never brought to question. Not the least of it was the fact that The Times wasn’t able to corroborate a single claim made by Huzayfah through other sources or field investigations. He claimed to have murdered two people for ISIS during his time with the group, then immediately recanted the murder claims in an interview with another media platform, CBC News.
As if the institutional bias wasn’t ridiculous enough already, Caliphate, the podcast, won a Peabody in 2018 and was even a finalist for a Pulitzer that year. Then, a couple of years later, Canadian authorities arrested a 25-year-old called Shehroze Chaudhry, who had apparently made up the whole thing from his apartment in Toronto. The Times found out about the arrest, said they were launching “an investigation,” issued the mother of all apologies, then just reassigned that reporter to a different beat.
But why am I ranting about a Times reporting scandal that happened 7 years ago? Because this is a pattern for media publications. Most of them don’t even have a fact-checking budget for their stories. Among the few that do, fact checkers are usually the first line of people to get fired whenever there’s a mass layoff. Meanwhile, the same media companies preach about journalistic integrity while replacing more and more real reporters with AI. So, the few reporters and editors that make the cut are so overworked that they don’t even have the energy to verify the claims made by a source.
You want more examples? Also in the same year, the German magazine Der Spiegel published a 10-page essay called “A Nightmare,” an extended apology for letting one of their journalists named Claas Relotius straight up fabricate articles to incite anti-American prejudice. “This house is shocked,” said the magazine. “What’s happened to us is the worst thing that can happen to an editorial team.” I should add that Der Spiegel is ironically a liberal German publication with a motto that says “If in doubt, go for left.”
Well, at least they apologized. But in December last year, the Washington Post published an op-ed that had its own Editorial Board’s byline on it, advocating for a ban on puberty blockers for trans kids. It’s no surprise that the op-ed is a perfect example of manipulation, using cherry-picked research and half-truths from fringe experts to paint a very inaccurate picture of how puberty blockers work.
Performance-based PR, coverage guaranteed
Run a quick Google search for “guaranteed media placements”, you’re sure to find many guest posting and public relations “marketplaces” that charge clients a flat fee for getting featured in any media outlet of choice. If you’re wondering how that works exactly, you aren’t the first.
It’s perfectly normal for PR agencies to cultivate relationships with journalists to get clients featured in different articles. But when they say that they can “guarantee” you a published feature in a specific outlet within 24 hours for the low price of $10,000 USD, it really makes you think about the nature of relationships they’re out cultivating.
Go read Jon Christian’s revealing article on this for The Outline: you’ll find that there’s an entire industry of shady outreach consultants who have been bribing vulnerable journalists to get their clients featured on Forbes, Huffington Post, Inc., etc. When asked, these publications defer responsibility to the individual contributors. But when you’re overworked and underpaid, is it really surprising that journalists struggling with crushing rent and student debt are open to these arrangements so easily?
We love AI in this office, but also, please don’t use it or you’re fired
Just days ago, Wired and Business Insider just removed a bunch of articles from freelancer “Margaux Blanchard” that they flagged as AI-written. What flagged them? Not just bad facts, but quotes from people who do not exist.
Naked Politics, a UK-based outlet aimed at young people and regulated by IMPRESS, also published an article by Blanchard in May. The headline read: “I was 14 when I first asked for help. Now I’m 17 and still waiting. Mental Health Services Are Failing — And Young People Are Fighting Back.” Blanchard was paid £75 for the article, which again quotes named experts who have no profile online. Naked Politics has since replaced the article with a nothing-soup legal disclaimer.
Here’s the rub, “her” articles are everywhere, which hints there are more rogue media workers out there and we haven’t caught them yet. This grounds us in a deeper problem: we don’t know how to tell the difference between “truth” and fact. It’s giving fake news a whole new meaning.
These things happened just three months after Business Insider laid off 21% of its editorial staff because: “We are going all-in on AI.” Which is how we are getting articles like these in the first place. (And, if you were wondering, yes, the people who didn’t make the cut were mostly unionized employees.)
Meanwhile, Quartz and Gizmodo came under fire earlier this year for publishing a slew of AI-generated articles with glaring factual errors, all while their corporate leadership defended the practice by saying the results had already exceeded their expectations. Well, Quartz at least had the smarts to put a generic disclaimer under every one of its articles to insulate itself against potential lawsuits.
So, which is it? Are these media companies against AI journalism, or only against it when they aren’t the ones profiting from it? Hypocrisy. That’s the only word I can think of as I swallow down the rising reflux of bile burning my throat.
Not a pessimist, just f*cking furious
I began working as a freelance journalist 8 years ago. Even then, journalism was already turning over in its grave. Papers were cutting corners, reporters were laid off left and right. And from there, it only got worse.
I used to write for both Quartz and Gizmodo. I still remember the day my editor at Quartz told me that her and the entire freelance desk had been laid off, just around the time of COVID-19. Apparently, it was part of some company-wide budget cut.
I really love doing this work. I know editors at many of these publications whom I’ve found an absolute delight to work with. People who taught me everything that I know. But they are rarely the ones calling the shots at any media organization anymore.
Lately, there’s been a growing divide between the journalists who carry the media companies on their backs and the suits who profit from their work. Journalists always end up losing in this equation, which is the part that makes me so furious.
Real people matter in storytelling. AI could’ve been integrated while preserving the best parts of media work. But somehow the folks at the top can’t comprehend it.
Journalism has always been underfunded, with reporters working long hours with below-standard compensations and low job security. And with the most recent wave of corporate “rebrands”, layoffs, and budget cuts: this might be the stick that breaks the camel’s back.
This isn’t just about AI. Or shady PR practices. It’s a systemic devaluation of real journalism work – field reporting, interviews, and fact-checks – the resources and skills that made for ground-breaking stories, which have all been stripped from the newsroom. Now, the crescendo of loss is at its climax.
If we don’t show the people who sign the checks that we still care about fairness in media, or the creative industry at-large, it might soon be too late.
📣 Spread the (Verified) Word
If this made you yell “Oh shit!” out loud, send it to someone who still believes journalism has a pulse. Share it with your group chat, your jaded editor friend, your cousin who thinks AI is “just faster,” or the coworker who still uses press releases like scripture.
Truth deserves better PR. And so do we.
Forward the newsletter. Hit repost. Raise hell.
We’re not done yet.